English and Russian science Last week was a scandal in Russia, when it was found that in the English version of a web-site of the Russian Academy of Science the Institute of protein (Институт белка) was named as a Squirrel institute. The mistake was made because of use of automatic translator. The Russian word "белок" (protein) in the form "родительский падеж" (like "of the") is similar to the word "белка", which means "squirrel". So, you should know: 1. words "белок", "белка" with accent on the last syllable means "protein", "of the protein". 2. words "белка", "белки" with accent on the first syllable means "squirrel", of the squirrel"

Barmagl0t week - Russian blog at italki #2 Today I'll tell you about fast-food in Russia, its role and history and some funny and interesting facts. McDonald’s came in Russia with the beginning of "perestroyka". The 1st restaurant was opened in 1990. The rental fee for the place for the 1st restaurant was 1rubl/year and still it is. It's about 3,3 cents - an amazing price for Moscow today, when the rental fee for 1 sq. meter is more than 1000 USD! During the first time McDonald’s opened its restaurants only in million cities. But there are only 12 cities in Russia with a population more than 1mln. Today they reduce the criteria level to 300 thousands and now it has 255 restaurants in 42 cities and towns. The 300ths city in Russia usually is called country town. Such towns usually are centers of small regions. Such town has 1 or 2 theaters, cinemas and a few trade centers. No underground, no airport, no traffic jams. Do you know about Big Mac Index - an index showing the price of the Big Max all over the world? The cheapest Big Mac is in China - 1,9 USD. In Russia it costs 2,3 USD, in USA - 3,7 and in Norway - 7,2 USD. So, it's not a high price. Russian people like to call McDonald’s as "a net of free WCs", but they usually visit it with family on weekends. Why I'm talking about McDonald’s so much? Actually it's the only international fast-food company in Russia. Burger King and Dunkin Donuts have just 2 or 3 little cafes in trade centers in Moscow - nobody knows about them. KFC has a local name Rostiks - it's a place with a terrible service and a cheap beer. Starbucks came recently and it has just a few cafes in Moscow. By the way nobody believed in the success of Sturbucks, because in Russia the cafe is a place when you can eat, smoke and drink. But Sturbucks became a place for advanced young people who use Facebook and Twitter and foreign tourists. In the next time I'll tell you about tradition Russian food. What do you know about it?

Barmagl0t week - Russian blog at italki My name's Pavel and I start a new column about Russia written by ordinary marketer from Moscow. I hope it will help you to understand Russia and I hope you will help me to improve my english. Please, correct my mistakes! So, on September, 22 sales of iPhone 4 started in Russia. If in Canada you can buy the 32Gb version for 657 Eur, the price for Russia is 878 Eur. By the way, the average salary in Russia is 715 Eur. Despite of Maslow's hierarchy of needs some students and workers save money on food and entertainment to buy it. Two weeks ago i bought "avoska" - it's a tradition Russian string bag. It was popular in USSR when you hadn't any secrets from other people and it was necessary to show results of your shopping to everyone. Now it starts again as eco-bag. Actually, there is no any ecological activity in Russia - the country is big and we can litter, but it's better to start recycle and use eco-friendly products. By the way - avoska is a handmade by the Russian Society of Blind People. It is an another Russian tradition - all low-tech goods in USSR were made by blind people. And now only they have expertise in string bag production. See you! Stay with barmagl0t week.

What do you think about Russia? What do you think about peoples? Sities? Have you been in Russia, what your impressions?